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Episode 801 - 16 Chefs Compete
The first episode of Season 8 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox, on September 22, 2010, airing as a double feature alongside the second episode. On that episode, the sixteen new chefs were introduced, one of them was forced to leave before service would begin, and the opening service became one of the worst starts in the show's history. Intro The season began with the narrator describing how restaurants, no matter the size, location, or style, all have chefs that were passionate and had big dreams. Then, Melissa, Vinny, Raj, and Jillian were seen receiving their acceptance invitations to Hell’s Kitchen, and reacted with excitement. After, a quick preview was shown, with the contestants being called the most competitive, intense, emotional, desperate, and paranoid group of chefs ever. It also showed arguments between team members, and even a few chefs standing up to Ramsay. The sixteen new chefs arrived at Hell’s Kitchen in the SUVs, with Antonia excited about being here, and Louis knowing that this was the beginning of his new step. But when Louis went to open the doors, they turned out to be locked, confusing the rest of the chefs. Gail even asked where Ramsay and Jean-Philippe were. Moments later, a mysterious man appeared behind them and introduced himself as James Lukanik, the new maître d' for Hell’s Kitchen. Emily was disappointed that Jean-Philippe was not there, and found James’s accent not that sexy. James revealed that there has been a change of plans, and gave the chefs blindfolds to put on. Gail and Vinny were nervous about what was going on as things were way out of their comfort zone. Moments later, the chefs arrived at the mysterious location, still blindfolded, and Ramsay let his presence known to them. Then, Ramsay explained that they were standing in the restaurant that would be the grand prize, and told them to take off their blindfolds, revealing that they were in LA Market, a multi-million dollar restaurant that was part of the LA Live complex. After, Ramsay asked the chefs if they wanted to see more of the restaurant, and while they all said they did, Ramsay told them that they were not ready yet and told them to get back to Hell’s Kitchen and cook their signature dishes. Signature Dish Challenge With determination after seeing the prize restaurant, the chefs immediately got to work, cooking their dishes with only 45 minutes of allowed time. During the cooking, Emily was worried about her breasts popping out of her shirt, which Jillian took notice of, and Sabrina complained about walking around in high heels. Eventually, the chefs completed their dishes and plated them in time. Before tasting their dishes, Ramsay revealed that the salary for LA Market's Head Chef would be $250,000, which Jillian said she wanted to win as it would get her and her boyfriend out of his parents' house. During the first round, Emily went up against Russell, but before Ramsay could taste their dishes, he gave Emily his apron to put over her chest as he did not want one of her breasts popping out, which Nona asked if Emily was for real. Emily presented her duck breast with grape and walnut campo, which Ramsay praised for being nicely cooked, and Emily hoped that Ramsay would duck breast and not her human breast. Russell revealed his grilled calamari steak with a salsa-verde, and while Ramsay was concerned about it being mid-rare, it was praised for its delivery. Because of that, both of them scored a point, tying the score at 1. On the second round, Nona went up against Vinny, and she presented her fried chicken with asparagus. But, Ramsay found the asparagus undercooked and the chicken too sweet due to Nona using honey. Vinny revealed his herbed poached halibut while saying people from Queens and people from Queens and they will be humiliated if they cross him, and he will bite their fucking toes off if they step on his shoes, and Ramsay immediately saw that there was oil on the plate, even asking if Vinny's hair oil got on the plate, while criticizing the presentation, which made Raj pray to god despite not being religious himself. Despite that, Ramsay said that the fish tasted nice and was nicely seasoned, and Vinny scored another point for the blue team, giving them a 2-1 lead. During the third round, Antonia and Curtis faced off. Before Ramsay could judge their dishes, he caught Sabrina yawning out loud, accused her of being bored, and threatened her with elimination. However, he gave Sabrina a chair to sit down, called her “Baby Spice”, and said he was already pissed with her despite not even tasting her food yet. After that little incident, Antonia revealed her Mardi Gras gumbo, but Ramsay was immediately shocked at the presentation, and asked if it normally looked like a plate of liquid shit. After tasting it, Ramsay started to throw up and asked Antonia if she tasted her dish. Antonia revealed that she did not, which caused Ramsay to throw up again. Antonia apologized that Ramsay did not like it, but Ramsay called the dish inedible. So, Antonia suggested to throw the dish out, but Ramsay decided to give it to Raj, and ordered the rest of the chefs to taste it. Everybody disliked the dish, Rob rather wanted a cat to shit in his mouth, Nona and Boris came close to throwing up themselves, and Vinny compared the taste to a big ball of mud. After Sabrina returned the dish to Ramsay, he tossed it in the trash, before throwing up once more. After, Curtis revealed his lemon pepper chicken, but Ramsay called it shit, so neither Curtis nor Antonia scored a point, leaving the score 2-1 for the blue team. For the next round, Jillian and Rob were up. Ramsay asked Jillian what was up with her eyebrows, even asking if she singed them off, but Jillian revealed she got them tattooed. She presented her herb and vegetable stuffed chicken with an herb cream sauce, which Ramsay deemed delicious, relieving Melissa as she was a little concerned based on Jillian's appearance. Rob presented his pistachio-crusted rack of lamb, but Ramsay found the lamb poorly cut along with it having raw fat on the meat. Jillian scored another point for the red team, tying the score at 2. The next round was between Gail and Trev, but Gail's dish had burnt potatoes and Trev’s dish was deemed an embarrassment, therefore none of them scored. Lisa and Louis were up next, but Lisa's meat was dry, and Ramsay could not get Louis's lobster out of its shell, so neither of them scored as well. Melissa and Boris went up next, and while Melissa's steak did not score a point, with Ramsay even asking if she was out of her tiny mind referring to her stature, Boris’s dish managed to score another point for the blue team, giving once again the lead for the blue team at 3-2. For the final round, Sabrina and Raj faced off, although Emily was a little concerned since Sabrina already pissed off Ramsay earlier that day. Sabrina revealed her buceta fish with grilled endive and blood orange fennel salad with brown butter vinaigrette, and while Ramsay thought she copied the recipe from a book, which she denied as she was not reading a lot, he liked the balance of the dish and the uniqueness of the fish. Finally, Raj, who boasted how much experience he had, presented his seafood and vegetable pancake. The presentation shocked Ramsay as it looked nothing like a pancake, and that it was pissing with oil. While Ramsay did like the taste of the seafood, he refused to give Raj a point due to its shocking presentation. So, Sabrina scored the point, leaving a tie at 3. To settle the tie, Ramsay explained that every kitchen was only as strong as their weakest link, and there was one dish that was the biggest insult for making him physically ill. That dish was Antonia's gumbo, and because of that, the blue team won the challenge. Louis joked that Antonia was the most valuable player for the blue team that day. Reward The blue team received massages, champagne, and caviar up in the dorms. When they got to the dorms, James greeted them, and the men relaxed. Later that night, a drunk Raj entertained his teammates with karate poses and stances. Curtis suggested that Raj take it down and save his energy for service, while admitting that he thought Raj would have a heart attack. Punishment The red team had to clean both kitchens ahead of the opening service, which Emily was not happy about as she had people to clean up for her back at her job. During the punishment, an upset Sabrina asked if they were going to keep losing, but Lisa reassured her that they would not. After nearly six hours of cleaning, the red team finished up and headed straight to bed. Before service The next morning, both teams came down to the kitchens and met Sous Chefs Scott and Andi, who provided the chefs with brand new Henkel knives for the competition. Both teams began their prep for the opening night, with Rob and Jillian confident that their teams would do well. Antonia's Exit While the rest of the chefs were confident going into service, Antonia was feeling ill, even stating in the confessionals that her head was hurting. One hour before service began, Sous Chef Andi noticed that Antonia was missing, and she asked Emily to go and find her. While Emily looked around, Antonia was about to leave the confessional area, only to collapse immediately. Emily found Antonia as the medical crew was checking up on her to see if she was feeling okay. Antonia revealed she was having a migraine, and that her head was hurting a lot. Emily relayed the news to the rest of the red team, but Sabrina was unsympathetic about Antonia's condition despite being nervous herself. Despite managing to get herself sitting up, Antonia's health was still uncertain, with her body even starting to shake. So, an ambulance was called, and Antonia was sent to the hospital. When both teams were lined up, Ramsay told them the bad news about Antonia, but urged them to keep focused on the opening service. Despite the fact the red team was down a chef, Lisa was still determined to beat the blue team that night. Before opening up, Ramsay approached James and reminded him that while it was the first night for the chefs, it was also his first night as the maître d'. He also told James to stay on top of everything while asking any questions he might have. With James understanding everything, Ramsay asked him to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service Michelle Branch and Donald Schultz were in attendance, and a special pizza station was handled by Melissa in the red kitchen, and Boris in the blue, and Emily and Raj were assigned as waiters. While Emily greeted her first table with confidence, Raj stumbled on explaining the specials. Then, Raj was seen writing the table orders at the pass, which caused Ramsay to ask why he did not do so at the tables. Ramsay read out the first tickets in the blue kitchen, and every member of the blue team got to work. Melissa and Boris sent up their pizzas to the pass, and both of them got their teams to a great start. Jillian and Nona sent up their appetizers, and both were accepted by Ramsay. Meanwhile, Trev sent up his salad, but it was overdressed, much to Ramsay’s frustration. While the blue team did not serve any appetizers yet, the red team managed to serve almost half of theirs already. However, one of Melissa's pizzas came out raw and Ramsay chewed her out for it. Boris overheard Ramsay and decided to mimic him, which Louis thought was not a smart move. Indeed, Ramsay overheard Boris' mimic, and pulled him over to the red kitchen to feel the raw pizza, while lecturing Boris on taking the piss out of his rants and threatened him with elimination if he would do it again. Boris promised not to mimic Ramsay again, admitted that it was not a smart move from his part, and Ramsay told Boris to focus. In the red kitchen, Lisa’s performance on the fish station started to slow down the momentum when she revealed to Nona that she did not put her scallops on yet. Then, Ramsay told Lisa that her scallops had no color on them due to her constantly flipping them and cooking on a low heat. Sabrina asked if she could bring up her Wellingtons, but Ramsay told her that they were still waiting on Lisa’s scallops. In the blue kitchen, Trev’s next attempt on his salad came out overdressed as well and Ramsay angrily asked for a properly dressed salad, while smashing the plate on the floor. Louis even considered strangling Trev for a proper salad. Trev sent up his third attempt, which was finally accepted. However, Ramsay informed the blue team that it took them an hour and a half to send their first order of appetizers out. In the red kitchen, Sabrina said that her Wellingtons were ready, but Gail told her that they were still waiting on the halibut and tagliatelle. However, an impatient Sabrina decided to send the Wellingtons anyway, which caused Nona to ask if Sabrina was crazy. Since the garnish and halibut were not ready yet, Ramsay accused Sabrina of throwing her team under the bus and berated her for not caring, calling her “Baby Spice” once again. Meanwhile, Ramsay told Raj to either help the blue team or fuck off, and Raj returned to the blue kitchen. Ramsay assigned him to help Boris on the pizza station, and a recently thrown off Russell felt that there was no way the two of them would work together, comparing the situation to two idiots doing a Rubik's cube. Russell's prediction came true as, despite Boris giving Raj clear instructions, Raj decided to do his own thing and cut the cheese instead of rolling the pizza dough. That caused a frustrated Boris to accuse Raj of trying to sabotage him, and Ramsay bemoaned that they were screwed on a pizza. Lisa sent her halibut to the pass, but it came out raw. Over two hours into dinner service, no entrées have left either kitchen. Despite James trying to do damage control over the situation, the diners got fed up and started to walk out. When James let Ramsay know about this, a frustrated Ramsay pulled both teams together and showed them what was going on. After berating Sabrina for sending up the Wellingtons bypassing her team, Boris for mimicking one of his rants, and accusing Raj of switching off, he shut down the restaurant. Post-mortem When both teams were lined up, Ramsay called that night the worst opening night in the history of Hell's Kitchen, and that they all set a new low, sarcastically congratulating both teams for their joke of a performance. Ramsay declared both teams joint-losers, and asked them to nominate two people for elimination. Back in the dorms, half of the blue team voted for Raj due to his abysmal performance, though Raj believed that they were all jealous of his abilities. The rest of the team agreed on Trev as their second nominee due to wasting five salads before sending out their first ticket, leaving Trev concerned about his fate. On the red side, Gail said that she would nominate Lisa due to her poor performance on the fish station and that she might be in over her head. Nona said that Sabrina should be up as well for being a poor team player, but Sabrina argued that Nona should be up for elimination based on her signature dish the previous day. By the end, everyone else was struggling with who to nominate. Elimination Before asking for the nominees, Ramsay revealed that he got a call from the hospital, and that Antonia would not be returning to the competition. Despite that, he was still going to send somebody home. Louis named Raj as the blue team’s first nominee, and Trev as the second. After that, Gail named Lisa as the red team’s first nominee, and Sabrina as the second. During the pleas, Ramsay called Sabrina the most selfish cook in the competition so far, but Sabrina argued that she still had more potential and believed that Lisa was spent, much to Lisa's disagreement as she argued she could cook circles around Sabrina despite her age. Then, Sabrina told Ramsay that she believed Nona should go home that night due to serving fried chicken as her signature dish, failing to cook asparagus properly, and snoring during her sleep, which Gail believed was a low blow. However, Ramsay disagreed with Sabrina and thought that all four nominees should be sent home. After much thinking, Ramsay called Sabrina's name, and told her to get back in line, before sending Trev back in line as well. Ramsay eliminated Lisa for her poor performance on the fish station and believing she was in over her head. After Lisa’s exit, Ramsay told both teams to make a massive comeback for their next service, and to either get serious or leave, before dismissing them. Ramsay's comment: "The only thing positive I can say about Lisa's performance tonight, she didn't kill anyone." Ramsay gave no comment on Antonia's departure, and she did not receive the coat hanging and burning picture sequence. Category:Season 8 Category:Episodes